


Clearing the Air

by Anonymous



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir Redemption, Alya Césaire Bashing, F/M, Gabriel Agreste | Papillon | Hawk Moth Bashing, Lila Rossi Bashing, class salt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-09
Updated: 2021-02-09
Packaged: 2021-03-14 23:33:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,915
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29304288
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: I have read a lot, and I mean a lot of salt over the years! Alya Salt, Lila Salt, Class Salt and some Bustier and Damocles as well. But I seem to notice in a lot of them they seemingly turn Adrien into a cowardly, naive doormat.Time to fix that.
Relationships: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug
Comments: 7
Kudos: 323
Collections: Anonymous





	Clearing the Air

Marinette heaved a big sigh has she slowly trudged home after another long and tumultuous day at school, ever since Lila had shown up, everything had seemingly become more and more difficult whether it was Lila spouting her outlandish lies or the seeming isolation from her classmates,just as well the week was at an end and the sanctity of her bedroom awaited.

"Oh Marinette" her mother greeted her wary face behind the counter "you have a friend waiting for you, they are upstairs"

A friend? That hasn't been the situation for a while now. Maybe it was Alya, finally realising the truth about Lila? Nahhh, she's been hanging on to that girls every word recently. It could be Luka, she could do with some cheering up with his guitar.

What she didn't expect was a familiar tuft of blonde hair sitting in her family's living room. Adrien Agreste was in her house, just a few weeks ago she would have serious butterflies with this situation but now she just felt…..conflicted? She still had feelings for the boy but things had felt tarnished given the Lila situation, she really couldn't believe that he was doing all these photoshoots with her.

"Hey", she was abruptly taken out of her train of thought with just that simple word.

"Hey, I thought you had a photoshoot today?" Adrien had been getting into a routine of having to leave during the final period for shoots with Lila right behind him, always leaving with a smirk aimed right at Marinette.

"They were cancelled" Adrien replied rubbing his forehead "Vincent pulled production cause Lila was just not co-operating, I swear she lacks any kind of professionalism whatsoever"

"What are you doing here" she asked,really not in the mood to deal with any of his sanctimonious bs today.

"I convinced my bodyguard to drop me off, I wanted to check up on you after what happened, to make sure you were okay" he stood up off the couch and approached her. Marinette just folded her arms and rolled her eyes "Well that's new, shouldn't you be checking on Lila first, best make sure she isn't akumatized for the fifteenth time this week" she replied with all the sarcasm she could muster

"Don't be like that Marinette" and there it was, his attempt to try and make her the bigger person. Sometimes she just wanted to punch him in his perfect cute nose, Augh! god he frustrates her sometimes.

"Why shouldn't I, it's obvious her feelings are way more important than mine" she turned away, desperately trying to hold back tears as Adrien tried to comfort her with assurances that wasn't true, she just pushed back.

"You're so concerned with her being Akumatized, that you don't care about anyone else suffering. Would you prefer if I was" Adrien shuddered at the thought of what could posses Marinette, "there is a reason we don't give the bad guy what they want" continued Marinette "there is a reason we don't negotiate with terrorists"

Again, Adrien tried to suggest that she wasn't that bad, to which Marinette asked if he liked her clinging to his arm and cutting off the circulation to his hand. By instinct, Adrien flinched and rubbed his arm, an action that didn't go unnoticed by Marinette.

"Seriously Adrien, why do you even put up with her, why do you let our friends continue falling for her crap"

Adrien sighed and ran fingers through his hair, there was no going back now "She's working for my father"

"Well duhhhh, she's a model for him what does th…."

"No, you don't understand" Adrien interrupted her while walking back to the couch "She's working for my dad to spy on me"

Time went super slow for those few moments as Marinette tried to comprehend what she just heard, as she headed to the couch she inquired how long this had been going on, Adrien didn't know but was sure it had been since she had started working for the label.

"Before the photoshoot was called off I overheard her talking on the phone, clearly talking to my dad about what I had been up too", he scrunched the arms rest "I can barely get a sentence with my father during breakfast and yet here she is giving him observations about what's going on, or at least her version of events, not to mention all the times she's threaten to rat me out for something I didn't do if I don't help her with something"

Now it was Marinette's turn to try and comfort him, she may be upset at him for some of his inactions, but it's obvious that the poor boy has been walking on eggshells most of his life when it comes to his father.

"What are these?" right next to Adrien on the couch was what looked like a pile of those gossip mags you get at the checkout counter, some were at least 15 years old. There was at least a dozen or so and they all had one thing in common.

They all had Adrien's parents on the cover.

The headlines were just bizarre

_"Agreste divorce finalised! Emiline to inherit Gabriel empire"_

_"Paternity tests in, Gabriel not the father"_

_"Confirmed! Gabriel Agreste's father was an Ostrich"_

Each one more and more bizarre and obviously false, but why were they here.

Adrien, who Marinette noticed was looking even more downtrodden, twiddled his thumbs as he looked at the pile "I feel I should explain myself, this was my life" he began, gesturing to the pile that Marinette had picked up to sit down next to him."Ever since I can remember these tabloids have been in my families business, I remember being five and crying to dad because this magazine told me he wasn't my real daddy"

Marinette stared intently as Adrien regaled the story of how his mom getting snapped having coffee with her cousin was made to look like an affair. While certainly disheartening, she still didn't know what this all had to do with anything.

"I haven't been a good friend Marinette"

Well, _THAT_ wasn't expected.

"When my dad told me about these stupid magazines, I wanted to do something, like how could they say this about my mom! But he refused, because the last thing that these things deserved was validation, to know they have our attention. My dad told me that if I knew it was lies, mum knew it was lies and he definitely knew it was lies…."

"Then that's all that matters" Marinette finished his sentence almost on instinct alone, remembering the day Adrien said that same thing several months ago, the same Adrien who was staring at her with a mixture of guilt and sorrow.

"I've grown up my entire life around people who will make up the craziest, most stupidest things, just for the attention, just for the validation. But eventually they just get bored and move on…."

"That hasn't been the case with Lila has it?" proclaimed Marinette which earned a grimace from Adrien, "it's been several months now and she still hasn't let up! You've seen how our class just revels in her presence, how they've been excluding me from events and you've done nothing to help, nothing to defend me" Marinette found herself getting angrier and angrier just thinking about the last few months.

"That's not true" defended Adrien.

"You've seen what she can get up too, what she says about other people, the way she threatens people…."

"Woah, what are you talking about? Threatening? When did she do that?"

"She threatened me, told me I'd lose all my friends"

"When was this?"

"When she returned"

"That was several months ago Marinette, why didn't you ever mention this!?" Adrien exclaimed.

"Sure I did, I mentioned it when…." that's when Marinette tried to picture when she said it and nothing came to mind. Adrien ran a hand through his hair.

"Geeze Marinette, if I had known that I never would have agreed to those damn photoshoots"

Well that got a surprise look on Marinette's face as he explained the deal he had made to get her unexpelled, how he had reduced himself to doing these cringe shoots with Lila just to keep the peace.

The sound of skin hitting skin as Marinette punched Adrien in the arm "OW!" and again "OW! MARI!" she suddenly grabbed one of the magazines and start whacking him more and more.

"HOW COULD YOU BE SO STUPID! WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT?" screamed Marinette as she pummeled him with the cover.

"Because I couldn't bear to see one of my best friends in trouble like that, I had to do something! You've seen how the staff handle stuff there" exclaimed Adrien as he defended himself from the tiny girls assault, it would be another 20 seconds before she chucked the magazine away and sat back down in the huff.

"You could have told me you did that though" Marinette said as she adjusted her hair.

"Well as we have already established, communication hasn't been the best" Adrien replied with a hint of smugness, the two sat back down in silence for what felt like ages.

"I'm still sorry though, I admit I still have some stuff to learn when it comes to social cues, but I just couldn't see her hurting one of my best friends like that" and like that, something happened to Marinette. The shiny pink hue that usually hung around Adrien like an aura faded away, what she saw instead was a poor sweet boy, one who had lived a life of unwanted luxury and seclusion, someone who at least was trying to better himself.

She suddenly latched onto his chest and started softly crying, Adrien responded by wrapping his arms tightly around the poor girl. After she calmed down Adrien reached for a nearby tissue box.

"We've both been bad at this" Marinette said as she dabbed her eyes clean and blew her nose "We were supposed to be in this together, and yet we have both just gone in our own directions without telling each other"

Adrien agreed with a heavy sigh and then things got awkwardly quiet for just a few moments too long, to break the tension Marinette picked up one of the magazines.

“He does look like an Ostrich”

What followed was several minutes of whacking magazines against each other, laughing and that’s when the couch pillows were brought into it and as luck would have it, Sabine had chosen that moment to ask Adrien if he was staying for dinner, only to find her daughter pinning the poor boy to the couch with pillows in a very compromising position.

“MOM! MOM NO” screamed a blushing Marinette

“I was going to ask if you wanted dinner but it looks like you skipped right to dessert” she giggled as her daughter flung herself to the other side of the couch, hands covering her face to cover her blushing and screaming.

Adrien smirked as he sat up, tidied himself up and was about to say goodbye when the tiniest “....stay….” was whispered. Peeking out through her finger tips Marinette suggested that he could stay if he wanted too.

They both smiled and shared a laugh as they headed to the dining room, there was still plenty of issues that needed to be addressed but now they really had each other....

and that was really all that mattered.


End file.
